The Last Man (1826)
Analysis of the Historical Context of The Last Man Of Mary Shelley’s literary works, The Last Man ''can be seen as the not only the most autobiographical, but also as a literary tribute and memorial to her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron amongst other members of her coterie. ''The Last Man is largely shaped by the events of Mary Shelley’s life, and, to a lesser extent, by some of the historical events of Europe during the 1810’s and early 1820’s. In several ways, the death of Percy Shelley in July of 1822 can be seen as the catalyst for the composition of The Last Man. ''As the first major literary publication after Percy’s death, ''The Last Man ''was almost a publication of necessity from a financial standpoint given that Shelly had returned to England with the reluctant intention of supporting herself and her only living child, Percy Florence Shelley, through her literary endeavors.1 ''The Last Man ''was also the result of Shelley’s cathartic ‘literary labors’ that were designed to alleviate the grief of the loss her husband, close friend in Lord Byron, and three of her children2. According to Pamela Bickley, Shelley “had already begun to think about the subject matter of ''The Last Man ''and the way in which her own intense feelings of bereavement could be fused in fictional form with the apocalyptic vision of plague”.3 Even though the apocalyptic was a very popular religious and didactic ''topos during the 1820’s,4 the inclusion of an apocalyptic world brought about by a plague can be attributed to the role that sickness played in leaving Shelley bereft of those she loved. Ten days after her birth, Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, succumbed to a fever5. The death of Shelley’s three-year-old son William was brought about by a “traumatic illness”6 as was Lord Byron’s death in 18247. The inclusion of a plague as the source of the destruction of humanity was also a symbolic choice in The Last Man ''since “the fear of plague as the invisible, all-powerful enemy is a refutation of religious optimism and it is also an attack on the politics of the Enlightenment”8. This plague is also an ignoble force that defeats the developing belief in republicanism only to give rise to an anarchist state9. Several of the main characters of ''The Last Man ''were inspired by and based on members of Shelley’s inner circle. Bickley has noted that Adrian is “an idealized portrait of Percy Shelley” while Raymond is “a thinly disguised Byron”10. One of the factors that contributed to the inclusion of an idealized representative of Shelley’s husband was to circumvent the prohibition placed on publishing a biography of Percy Bysshe Shelley by Mary Shelley’s father-in-law.11 Percy Bysshe Shelley as Adrian allowed Mary Shelley to describe Percy Bysshe Shelley to those within their circle as she saw him which granted Mary Shelley an opportunity to create a literary tribute to her recently deceased husband. With the lightly disguised Byronic character of Raymond Shelley blends contemporary historical events with a memorial to Lord Byron whose death in Constantinople in 182412 clearly influenced the composition of ''The Last Man which can be seen with the central digression depicting Raymond’s involvement and subsequent death in Greek military campaigns.13 Raymond’s involvement with the Grecco-Turkish war is based on the Greek War of Liberation from the Ottoman Empire which started in 182114. Even though the English monarchy is abolished in favor of a republic in'' The Last Man, the notion of a republican “Lord Protector” has a historical president in the English Commonwealth established by Oliver Cromwell during the interregnum. However, the idea of another ruling in lieu of an actual monarch might have been influenced by the Regency of Prince of Wales who would eventually become King George IV that lasted from 1811-1820.15 Despite the pseudo-biographical content of Shelley’s Elite within ''The Last Man, a significant contribution to the conception and overall development of the text can be attributed to Shelley’s personal life which can be seen in the inclusion of an autobiographical identification with Lionel Verney, Idris and ultimately the novel’s eponymous narrator16. Even though the first two decades of the 1800’s witnessed a sudden proliferation of ‘last men’ Shelley’s association with the subject can be linked to the isolation and alienation Shelley experienced throughout her life. The death of her first child had a significant impact on Shelley to the degree that “no one appeared to comprehend her grief over this loss”17. This grief was revisited with the deaths of two more of her children and after the death of her husband, Shelley mentioned that she felt so alone that her remaining child was no consolation.18 Throughout her life, Shelley experienced alienation which lead to a sense of isolation that only exacerbated the anguish of losing her husband, other close friends, and all but one of her children and ultimately gave rise to Shelley’s personal feelings of being a ‘last woman’. Shelley has commented on her association with the concept of a ‘last man’ through her admission of feeling as though she was the last of her beloved race with all of those she loved dying before her.19 However, the true extent of Shelley’s perception her entire alienated existence can only be described in her own words: Methinks I was born to that end alone, since all events seem to lead me to that one point - & the coursers of destiny having dragged me to that single resting place, have left me. I cannot be destined to live long; A hatred of life must consume the vital principle – perfectly detached as I am from the world, I cannot long be a part of it. I feel that all is to me dead except the necessity of viewing a succession of daily suns illuminate the sepulcher of all I love.20 Criticism Criticism of The Last Man ''tends to focus on the (auto)biographical elements of the text and the perceived Anglo-centrism and imperial critiques. However, there have also been contributions that discuss the novel’s historiographical, prophetic, and temporal commentaries. Vaulted Over By the Present This article is predominatley in the imperial and historical vein of criticism. One of the central concepts discussed within this article is the notion of sovereignty both in terms of who is to rule and the manner in which he or she goes about doing so. Elmer notes how Shelley uses the three subsequent Lord Protectors of Raymond, Ryland, and Adrian to provide a commentary on authority and governance. The character of each man is reflected in their style of governance: ‘the power-hungry and aristocratic Raymond becomes the romantic despot through his projective power, quests for control and the desire to impress himself on the world largely through his fatal hubris and lack of self governance. The republican arriviste Ryland instills a rule of every-man-for-himself egalitarianism creates such a governmental disunity that allows the plague to make irreversible inroads into England which ultimately leads to his removal. The saintly Adrian’s relief of Ryland instills an authoritative power to protect and care rather than imposing and change which is brought abut through pastoral retreat and isolation’.21 Prophetic History And Textuality In Mary Shelley's The Last Man This article is in the historiographic vein of criticism and primarily deals with the notion of history as written by ''The Last Man. One of the centrals issue raised up is the notion of authorship and how that shapes recorded history. The question of authorship and authorial intent is further complicated by the dual frame narrative. The initial story is composed by Lionel Verney who openly acknowledges that his purpose for writing changes throughout the course of his narrative. There are even times when “Verney again feels the need to modify his historical method because of his now altered view of the past.”22 The second layer of narrative is imposed by the linguistic limitations of The Author of the “Author Introduction” and her companion in that they only ‘took from the cave those leaves “whose writing one at least of them could understand” with the intention of translating them.’23 The ultimate result of this translation is admittedly corrupt by The Author who “warns that she has transformed the prophecies, arguing that “scattered and unconnected as they were, has been obligated to add links, and model the work into a consistent form.””24 Aside from the complications associated with writing a history in terms of “presenting historical events with immediacy and meaningful distinctions” the history presented by the entire text additionally convoluted by the fact that “the raw materials of the historian working with the verifiable past here become the supernatural artifacts of the prophetic historian working with one possible, though as yet indefinite future.25 Time and the Sibyl in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man Blending historical, imperial, and cultural criticism, this article attempts to illustrate the larger significance of history as it pertains to a liner progression of recorded events and the inclusion of the Cumaean Sibyl in The Last Man. ''The significance of history, prophetic or otherwise, and time are used to argue that Shelley uses these devices “as a way to spark in her readers the visionary alacrity that revolutionizes the self and so forever transform a part of humankind.26 Ruppert partially challenges the preexisting scholarship that asserts that ''The Last Man ''is a critique of empire by positing that the text creates a “potential for universal solidarity in the face of nightmarish distress” and “for as much as it reflects the sociopolitical and cultural milieu of late Romantic England, ''The Last Man serve principally to dramatize its authors theory of the human imagination as a legitimate source of both personal and public reformation.”27 Through the inclusion of the Sibyl, allows Shelley to further complicate the narrative framework by providing an entity that allows The Author “to recover the work of a person either long dead or as yet unborn” which allows Shelley to question “the deterministic, even fatalistic perspective of history as the record of absolute necessity.”28 Shelley’s use of the Sybil also gives the text an additional layer of perceived authority that also allows Shelley the opportunity to challenge the prophetic tradition and its Romantic male biases.29 However, the prophetic nature of the text also complicates its historical nature in that the prophecy allows The Author to perceive ‘one possible future that has been interpreted as a general delineation of human truths rather than a precise description of what possibly awaits mankind.’30 Ultimately, The Last Man ‘renders a prophecy within a prophecy, or rather a vision of history within a vision of history that warns rather than damns, cautions rather than condemns which allows Shelley’s audience to rethink human community against the image of its discontinuation.’31 ---- 'References' ---- 1 Bickley viii. 2 Bickley viii. 3 viii. 4 Bickley xx. 5 Bickley ix. 6 Bickley ix. 7 http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/byronchronology/1823.html 8 Bickley xxi. 9 Bickley xxi. 10 vii. 11 Wolfson xviii. 12 Wolfson xxx. 13 Bickley xvii. 14 Wolfson xxx. 15 Wolfson xxvi, xxix. 16 Bickley xii. 17 Bickley ix. 18 MWSL I p. 252 qtd in Bickley ix. 19 MWSJ p 476-7 qtd in Bickley xii. 20 MWSJ p 432-4 qtd in Bickley xii. 21 Elmer 357-358. 22 O’Dea 299. 23 O’Dea 290. 24 O’Dea 291. 25 O’Dea 285, 292 26 Ruppert 141. 27 Ruppert 142. 28 Ruppert 144, 145. 29 Ruppert 146. 30 Ruppert 148. 31 Ruppert 149. Selected and Further Readings Bickley, Pamela. “Introduction”. The Last Man. ''By Mary Shelley. Ware, Hertfordshire UK: Wordsworth Editions, 2004. vii-xxviii. Print. Elmer, Jonathan. “’Vaulted Over By the Present’: Melancholy and Sovereignty in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man.” Novel: A Forum On Fiction'' 42.2 (2009): 355-359. Print. The Journals of Mary Shelley 1814-44. Ed. Paula R. Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert Bennett Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1995.Print The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Ed. Betty T. Bennett.Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1988.Print O'Dea, Gregory. "Prophetic History And Textuality In Mary Shelley's The Last Man." Papers 'On Language And Literature: A Journal For Scholars And Critics Of Language '' ''And 'Literature 28.3 (1992): 283-304. Print. Rupert, Timothy. "Time and the Sibyl in Mary Shelley's The Last Man". ''Studies in the Nove''l 41.2 (2009): 141-156. Print. Wolfson, Susan J.. “Table of Dates”. ''Frankenstein. ''By Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. New York NY: Longman, 2007. xxiii-xxxii. Print. .The Last Man (1826)